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Can this cause a post earthquake tsunami? Or only if the earthquake epicenter is underneath the sea?

That was scary. I was chatting with my Thai boyfriend and the curtains and lights in my condo room started swaying at 1:22pm today. https://www.khaosod.co.th/breaking-news/news_9694098 Here is a 6 second video of the lights above my bed swaying....scary... 20250328_132732.mp4

I agree. If our U.S. Treasury, via the IRS required 1040 annual tax filing, adds 15% to the employer stated wages for tax purposes - then why can't the wages be restated as existing wage + 15% --> and the IRS stops adding 15% to their income subject to taxation. Perhaps the restaurant lobby does not want to accept this financial burden? I have no idea - it has been this way since I was born....

and wait, the amount that you should tip has gone digital, in the sense that you are made to feel bad if you only give 30%. From the below screen shot, you only get a "thank you" if you give 100% I remember the good old days when the suggested tip was: 10% to 15% of the bill, or, what we used to do in New York, back in the day - take the sales tax multiplied by 2 and leave that as the tip - which in my youth came to around 14% to 15%. As my mom was a waitress her entire life - she hated when customers gave her less than 15% - because when she had to file her IRS annual tax return to the U.S. Treasury, for this class of worker, the IRS would automatically add, I believe 15%, to their employer reported wages, as "tips assumed to be received and consequently taxable...". So, perhaps this helps to explain this intense tipping pressure. But 30% to 100% (as suggested in the above restaurant payment system) in my opinion is absolutely ridiculous. I wonder how many people chose the "Custom" option ?

Excellent post @a-447. Earlier this month I returned from 62 days in the Philippines - mainly in the Cebu metropolitan area. I had a similar experience but with a cheeseburger. I ordered a cheeseburger and the waiter took my order and brought my request to the chef. He returned sheepishly to tell me that the cheeseburger is not available today because there is no cheese. So, I asked if I could substitute the cheese for something else and I was told - oh no sir, the chef has strict rules that he can only prepare the meal according to the approved plan. I asked, is the person who approved the plan for the cheeseburger here? He replied, oh no sir, that team is over in corporate in Manila. The only concession that I could get was to have my cheeseburger downgraded to a normal hamburger - which I accepted. As I was with my adorable Mr. B, my local Filipino tour guide, I told him that I would run across the street to 7-Eleven to buy some cheese to put on my to-be delivered hamburger. A look of horror came over his face and he pleaded with me not to to this and to create shame to the pre-approved system. So, to keep happiness and harmony I declined to go to the nearby 7-Eleven. After 62 days in the Philippines I see a STRONG parallel with the Japanese indoctrination process that you wrote about in your above post. The result on the Philippine nation is that nobody will take charge of a situation and/or improvise - as it is not allowed. Mr. B. told me that Philippine employees can be fired and/or punished (wages are garnished and they are sent home without pay) if they do not follow the pre-approved (often rigid and inflexible) scripts - which are prepared by managers who also cannot think outside of the box. And this was not the only incident during those 62 days - a more serious incident, which I reported in my Cebu trip report here - relates to a self-inflicted incident created by a Metro Department staff strictly abiding by a poorly written managerial script, which went off of the rails, because nobody was allowed to think out of the box...

Wait until they will implement an FSD (Full Self-Driving) system, perhaps it would be called, FSF (Full Self-Flying) system, like what is commonly found in Tesla cars.

I have failed to make myself clear. So, I need to tell a personal story which resolidified this collectivism belief into my brain by that former Chinese Malay boss. Often here in Jomtien I eat alone - I am ok with that - no problem. Of the 3 Thai boyfriends that I have had to date - they found this "eating alone" behavior strange. All of them told me that in the Thai society to eat together as the collective is the ideal eating situation. They also told me that during their child rearing years that when they were bad - they were disciplined by being forced to eat alone - to be forced away from the collective. So, in my mind, this is a clear example of the preference for the collective over our Western comfort with the individual. Did I miss something ?

Interesting to hear you say this. When I worked for a very large international organization - in our Budapest office - one of our many managers that were sent to us to manage our team - she was directly from Malaysia (Chinese Malay) and she constantly DRILLED into our heads that us Westerners needed to be sensitive to our Asian clients, as she kept saying that their culture is one of collectivism and group think and that we should not confuse it with our culture of individualism and individual thinking. Then when I moved to Thailand - what I have observed is large groups of various Asian nationalities meandering the streets of Thailand either in large groups or in bus caravans with a tour guide. Whereas, the Westerners that I observed were rarely in large groups or in bus caravans with a tour guide.

18 April and 19 April will be the WORST days for Pattaya's Songkran festival this year 2025. If you are coming to Pattaya on 20 April then it should be ok - but the city may look a little bit worn down - as the 20th is the day after the peak mayhem day of 19 April.

Interesting dilemma when the Asian norm is "collectivism". But the above statement implies that "individualism" applies when making his "own choice" in the man that is going to satisfy his (Asian) sexual desires. It is nice to learn that "individualism" has a place in a "collectivist" society.

I was hoping that you intended the renaming to: The BIG One as in the size of their appendages 🍆🍆

so not only in Pattaya (PFC), but also in Bangkok (BFC) ? I believe that these types of tragedies are much rarer in BKK than in Pattaya ?

and is also a nice way to not feeling the pressure to have to keep up with the Jonses - oops - I mean KFC - Mr. Stamina!!!

Exactly. I am so embarrassed to even post this additional postponement. Perhaps trying to get the many massage shops that are involved to pull off this event --> are like trying to herd cats? 🤔

What I do is I accumulate the coins in a jar - I have a seperate jar for the 10 baht coins as they are very useful here in Pattaya (i.e. Bahtbus). Then 1 time each year my cleaning lady takes them to 7-Eleven and gets paper bank notes back. I give her a "reward" for this extra service. The last time that we did this it was around 3,200 baht in coins. Not bad. I could use it for massages 🙌👐 🍆💦

and you are CORRECT: I had hoped that you would be wrong - but I am the eternal optimist...... not even a close vote.....

On 11 March 2025 an update was posted in the MIMA PARTY LINE group that the party has been postponed from Saturday 22 March 2025 to now be: Saturday 03 May 2025 Below is the announcement, as was posted in LINE with the associated Google Lens translation: Related associated LINE chat after auto AI translation was applied: April was considered, but due to many Songkran festivities they decided to postpone the first ever MIMA PARTY to Saturday 3 May 2025.

Sorry guys - I forgot to post that the MIMA party has AGAIN been moved to a new date: 3 May 2025. I will update the MIMA Party thread now.

During my 62 day stay in Cebu (January / February 2025) in the Philippines - when I was lodging over on Mactan island - I visited 2 times the Mactan Shrine - where the Battle of Mactan is displayed. Back in 1521, the local people - led by Lapu-Lapu, killed many of the Spanish forces that were invading the area - killing the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the battle. This was the first killing of a European in the Philippines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan When I discussed this history with many local Filipinos - how they replied was often consistent and a bit brainwashed (in my opinion). They were proud that they defended their land from the Spaniards (only successfully in that battle), but they also told me that the local people at that time were savage and without culture, religion, and norms - and so it was good that eventually the Spaniards returned to bring them culture, religion, and trade. So, it is as if, the Filipinos are condoning and endorsing: Kipling's view of colonialism that it was "the white man's burden" to improve - and thus westernise - native populations at the sacrifice of their own (pre 1521) culture and history.

This is SO true. I have used similar lines here in Pattaya - and they are often SO proud when I say that they are from Isaan. Since I am an edger (side) and I rarely fuck - I will borrow your line - as it fits me perfectly "suck and chuck...." I love it & thanks!!

wow - thanks for this great advice. And yes, you have observed me well. And each time that I allow myself to lose my anger - afterwards, I feel like a piece of shit for doing so. Even after 5 years of anger management, with an excellent psychologist - some people still get under my skin (nagging mamasans being one such category), and an occasional anger outburst will occur. But they are a lot less than the period of my life prior to those 5 years with the psychiatrist. My psychologist taught me to remove myself from situations that are escalating towards that point of an outburst. But, when I am paying to be in a gogo bar to have fun - I really don't want to exit the bar because of an annoying mamasan. Perhaps I can print some polite expressions in Thai that I can display to these nagging mamasans - so that they get the message in a polite way. Or, perhaps I could print messages that are strategically printed from level 1 up to level 5 - where each "polite" message is more terse than the previous one. Then I could measure its effectiveness to see how many mamasans push me to anger level 6 ??

I am also a victim with the mamasan thing. My BIGGEST failure was during my May 2024 @vinapu boot camp training on how he had just taught me on how to avoid the mamasan and not to employ their services and during our visit to Moonlight - I failed miserably when I let the lurch mamasan coordinate my off. My problem is that I don't know how to tell them to fuck off politely and the lurch mamasan is the worst. My problem is that I fear to after saying 2 or 3 times that I do not need your help and that I want to be left alone - my anger level will escalate from 0 to 100, where I might yell and tell them to fuck off in a not nice way - and I hate myselft when I become this monster. If only I could compromise at anger level 50 instead of going fully to the 100 anger level. There should be a nice and polite way to make the mamasans stay away - like a sticker that we can place on our person that says, "no assistance required", or "I will flag you over if I need your help", or some other mechanism - obviously all written Thai.

I remember back in the day when I started out my career in banking directly across the street from the World Trade Center (WTC) in lower Manhattan. One of the charms of this location was the nearby TKTS booth in the WTC South Tower up on the mezzanine level. What was great with TKTS was that you could take advantage of the bargain basement pricing to see a great Broadway show - as the overstock (unsold tickets) were made available in BOTH of the TKTS addresses in the WTC and also in Times Square on West 47th & Broadway. In my opinion, the WTC location was the best because you could do the transaction within the WTC (in case the weather was not good this was a big bonus) instead of the sometimes very long lines up in Times Square. As my banking career in Manhattan was only from 1981 through 1987 - I cannot remember the prices that we paid back then, but I remember for sure they were 50% off of the normal ticket price. We were able to see some great Broadway shows back in the day thanks to TKTS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TKTS

Is this a clue on when you will be returning to LOS? in 3 to 5 months to consume what you bought?

Wow PeterRS - this Baan LaLisa nursing home is right next door to where I live here in Jomtien over in the Grand Condotel complex. Perhaps that could be the solution I would be looking for. I will walk over there one of these soon days to check it out. Thank you so much!!